This recipe for White Bean and Tuna Salad with Lemon Pepper Dressing is one of those lifesaver recipes made from store cupboard staples that everyone should have in their repertoire.

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Adapted from How to Cook Book Two by Delia Smith.

Serves 4 as a light main course or 6 as a starter/light lunch

Ingredients

for the salad:
2 x 400 g tins of cannellini beans
salt and freshly ground black pepper
a few handfuls of rocket, stalks removed
2 x 200 g tins of tuna, drained
1 red onion, peeled and sliced thinly
crusty bread, to serve

for the dressing:
1 or 2 cloves garlic, peeled
1 teaspoon Maldon sea salt
1 heaped teaspoon mustard powder, such as Colman’s
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
zest and juice of 1 large lemon (3 tablespoons juice)

Method

To make the dressing, first crush the garlic and salt using a pestle and mortar until the garlic is pulverised into a paste, then work in the mustard powder and pepper. If you have a large pestle and mortar, add the olive oil, lemon zest and juice directly into it and whisk everything together thoroughly. If your pestle and mortar is small (like mine), then scrape the garlic paste into a larger bowl and whisk in the olive oil, lemon zest and juice in that.

Place the beans in a bowl and pour the dressing over, stirring to make sure all the beans are coated. Season generously.

To serve the salad, arrange three-quarters of the rocket leaves over the base of one large serving dish (or you could assemble the salad on individual plates), spoon the beans on top and add the tuna fish in chunks.

Add the rest of the rocket, pushing some of the leaves and chunks of tuna right in amongst the beans.

Arrange the onion slices on top and serve straight away with plenty of crusty bread on the side.

You can find these recipes and more family favourites on the Dinner Du Jour blog, www.dinnerdujour.org.